Name: Rose Alley (Kevin Roper, Neil Carroll, Aaron Nadeau, Drew “Motherfucking” Wyman )
Occupation: Band
Bar of Choice: Nonesuch River Brewing
August First is a momentous day in Grateful Dead culture: Jerry Garcia’s birthday. So it’s a momentous month to feature Rose Alley, a band born of Jerry’s music, as The Regulars. Nonesuch River Brewing’s high-ceilinged, wood-beam Scarborough tap room and restaurant has eats, drinks and vibes you’ll enjoy whatever your jam is.
How did you all end up at Nonesuch?
Neil: We practice nearby, so it’s an easy meeting place for us.There’s great staff that works here and great food. There’s a lot of regulars that come here, and so it’s a great community. All walks of life. There are no TVs, no distraction. You get good conversation. There aren’t a lot of good options in this part of South Portland, and the food is really good, it stands out around here.
How long have you been a band?
Kevin: We’re going to be six years old coming up in January. A venue was scrambling for a band last minute, so we decided to get together. There’s a million Dead bands, so we don’t need to do that. The Jerry Garcia Band has a much different catalog, and we’re able to expand from that into other similar music. So, we started as a Jerry Garcia Band tribute, as opposed to a Grateful Dead tribute. We also have kind of created our own sound. … It’s a mix of all different influences.
Neil: I worked with Kevin in a beverage distribution company. We both knew we played music, but we didn’t play together. He just kind of reached out to me and said, “Hey, we’re putting this thing together,” and voila, we got on stage, and I met the other two guys for the first time.
Kevin: Maine is a very incestuous music scene. We’ve all played together in something at some point. So, Aaron and I had played in Band Beyond Description together. Drew I met playing in the Cosmic Zombies. For that first gig it was, “Who’s available?” and then we said, “This is awesome, great chemistry, we get along really well.” I’ve been in bands before where there’s tension, whether it’s between me and them or just somebody. There’s always drama, and so this was one of the first bands all together that I was like, “Oh, this is awesome.” We’re all just brothers.
What’s it like playing all around New England?
Kevin: For me personally, I don’t really think that it’s the area that we play as much as it is the moment that we’re playing in. I personally get a lot of joy from just the chemistry that we’ve made as a band. It’s always great to go to a new venue. It’s always great to go back to familiar places. We love our core community of fans that are constantly coming out to see us, and sometimes surprise us and travel distances to come see us. So, that’s a good feeling.
Neil: We’ll go and play in front of three hundred people, and I can look out and I probably know at least half of the people, either by name or they’ve come to see us a lot. It’s really cool to know you have that continued support, and a lot of them are my good friends, as well. We like to hang out together. We like to go see other shows together. They come to see us, drink some beers, have fun. Definitely keeps us going.
Does it feel like there is a lot of competition between the Grateful Dead/jam cover bands?
Neil: It’s a really good relationship. I’d say a lot of the music scene in Maine is that way. If you go to like a major market, there’s a lot of competition and people are like, “You know that band? Oh, damn I hate them,” or, “They’re taking our turf,” and it’s not like that here. Everybody helps each other out, and it’s a good experience just playing with other bands. The venues do a pretty good job at cross referencing to make sure they’re not putting on a show that is going to be a huge competition to another show up the street. You’re just diluting both attendances.
Do you all work elsewhere outside of playing music?
Kevin: Neil and I both work at Woodland Farms Brewing. Aaron is a full-time musician, so he plays four or five nights a week. Drew works in the nonprofit sector.
Did you all ever want to just be musicians full time?
Kevin: I’ve tried but I just get burnt out on doing all the solo stuff. But I’ve done it. I’ve been playing music since I was a kid. As I got older, the more I played, it was like, “Oh yeah, this is something I want to do.” Creating and how it makes us feel and then giving it to the people, too, and having that interaction, it’s a huge drive for me, that reciprocal thing between loving what I’m doing and having and giving enjoyment to other people. It goes full circle. It’s awesome to have something to do outside of work that is a passion and also can earn extra income. But I would love to just be able to just do it. If somebody gave me the call and said, “Hey, we’re going on tour, and this is what it pays,” I’d do it. But at the same time, just like Neil, at one point we made a decision to buy houses and have kids, and so we kind of can’t. We’re not twenty-eight anymore. I’m forty-nine, Neil is fifty-six. If I was unmarried, no mortgage, no kid, and thirty-one, it would be a lot different story for me.
Neil: My spark happened actually in 1988 after going to see the Grateful Dead at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, and I thought to myself, This is a cool way to make a living. The joy that it gives people, the interaction between band members and fans, it was just amazing to me. It made me just want to be a musician. I moved to California and toured with a band for three or four years. It’s just kind of an itch that always needs to be scratched at this point. Even though we have full-time jobs, it’s something that we always have to do. If I don’t have a lot of gigs and I’m sitting around a lot and I start getting cranky, my wife always tells me, “Would you just get out and play?”
How do your kids feel about your band?
Neil: When my wife was pregnant, I actually went out and played more because we needed more money, and she’s always been really supportive of that. And my son Zach is now a deathcore singer, and he does the whole growl. He’s in a band right now called Drown the Witness, and they’re putting together a full-length album. He’s writing lyrics. He’s got that bug too now. He just graduated high school, and he’s really trying to make a good run at it and see what he can do with music.
Kevin: My kid thinks it’s cool but it’s not his thing. He is definitely not following my path at this point. Ha!
